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Directory vs Phonebook - What's the difference?

directory | phonebook |

As nouns the difference between directory and phonebook

is that directory is a list of names, addresses etc, of specific classes of people or organizations, often in alphabetical order or in some classification while phonebook is a directory of all the phone numbers used in a district.

As an adjective directory

is containing directions; instructing; directorial.

directory

English

(wikipedia directory)

Noun

(directories)
  • A list of names, addresses etc, of specific classes of people or organizations, often in alphabetical order or in some classification.
  • (computing) A structured listing of the names and characteristics of the files on a storage device.
  • (computing) A virtual container in a computer's file system, in which files and other directories may be stored. The files and subdirectories in a directory are usually related.

    • Synonyms

    * (structured listing)

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Containing directions; instructing; directorial.

    • phonebook

    English

    Alternative forms

    * phone book

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A directory of all the phone numbers used in a district.
  • *{{quote-news, year=2007, date=June 13, author=Virginia Heffernan, title=Doing the People's Business, in All Its Somnolent Glory, work=New York Times citation
    • , passage=One even proposes, in a workaday monotone, that the first hundred people in any Idaho phonebook could do just as well as the legislators at making decisions in the capital. }}
  • (by extension) A large lookup table.
  • *{{quote-news, year=2007, date=July 9, author=John Markoff, title=Fixing Typos by Web Users, Without Raising Hackles, work=New York Times citation
    • , passage=He does this by using the Domain Name System, or DNS, which is the phonebook for the Internet. }}

    Hyponyms

    * white pages * yellow pages